[Pepper giggled, too. It wasn't the riskiest thing she'd done by far, but China was dangerous. Pepper seemed to have gotten on her good side.]

She and Skulduggery Pleasant have history. Like, not just know each other - there's some serious something that went on between them. She doesn't like people and she practically admitted to liking him. [Not in the romantic way, but there was an undercurrent of an echo of a possibility there.]